Piper Fellow Recipients 2012

2012 Piper Fellow Carlos Galindo-Elvira

“Working at Valle del Sol provides me with the opportunity to serve the community; it’s truly an environment that welcomes my commitment to the nonprofit sector and my desire to help meet the healthcare and human services needs of underserved families and children. Valle del Sol also supports my role as an advocate on issues of importance to the Hispanic community and diverse populations.”– Carlos Galindo-Elvira, Chief Development Officer, Valle del Sol

Carlos Galindo-Elvira has held various leadership roles at Valle del Sol and is Chief Development Officer, overseeing the organization’s philanthropy, business development, marketing, leadership development, and community relations. He has held a variety of service positions including: Mayor of Hayden, Arizona, assistant to a U.S. senator, voter outreach coordinator, and childcare program director. Galindo-Elvira believes that “using one’s voice to assist others has extraordinary valor as there are individuals who face unimaginable barriers in their lives and they are often invisible to the community-at-large.”

Carlos Galindo-Elvira planned a diverse fellowship with innovative goals to invigorate his professional and personal development. He participated in a leadership and innovation course at the Center for UC Berkeley Executive Education and a brand management course at the Kellogg School of Management. Galindo-Elvira conducted “best practice” visits at two community health centers and shadowed senior managers who lead fundraising and marketing. He saw the fellowship as an opportunity to progress toward becoming a well-rounded nonprofit executive leader and as “a time like no other for him to help Valle del Sol shape healthcare service delivery.”

2012 Piper Fellow Christine Girard

“I believe I am a leader who works well within the healthcare system. I want to grow into a leader who transforms the Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine as well as higher education and healthcare overall. I came to medicine from police work and continue to serve the public, now as an administrator, committed to the success of SCNM’s students and graduates. Through them, I touch more patients than I ever could as a doctor in practice.”
– Christine Girard, Executive Vice-President,

A graduate of Goddard College and National College of Naturopathic Medicine, Christine Girard has spent her professional career working in government and nonprofits. She has explored many aspects of medicine, including family practice, integrative oncology, research, teaching, and administration. Her career is focused on hospital-based, integrative medicine, and medical education. She is executive vice president of Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine.

Girard’s objective is to be an authentic and effective leader, serving the College’s growing community. Her Piper Fellowship centered on studying change management and authentic leadership at the ALIA Leadership Institute and servant leadership at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business. She also participated in mindfulness training at the University of Massachusetts Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Healthcare, and Society and at the Zen Mountain Monastery.

2012 Piper Fellow Terry Hines

“At an early age I learned, the importance of helping others. Over the years, my passion and desire to advocate on behalf of children who are victims of abuse, neglect, and of life has become the central focus of my daily work. While they are such a vulnerable population, children are amazingly resilient and able to overcome even the most horrific early life experiences. Each day I choose to advocate for these children who are hurting, and do what I can to make a difference in their young lives, one child at a time.” – Terry Hines, Chief Operating Officer, Child Crisis Center

Terry Hines began work at the Child Crisis Center in 1985 and currently serves as its chief operating officer. While working toward her undergraduate degree, she was assigned to the Center to gain practical experience—this initial placement became her employer for years to come. Hines earned a bachelor’s degree in social work from Arizona State University and her master’s degree in organizational management from University of Phoenix.

Hines’ Piper Fellowship was designed to further develop and expand her skills and proficiency as she took on a leadership role to develop a new strategic plan for the Child Crisis Center. She attended several leadership development seminars including one at the Disney Institute and participated in training hosted by the Center for Creative Leadership. In addition, Hines visited key nonprofit sites and learned more about approaches to service delivery and planning for the future.

2012 Piper Fellow Doug Hirano

“Working in the field of Asian American health has allowed me to get closer to my ethnic roots as an American of Japanese descent. As a younger man, I had always dreamed of working internationally. I never made it overseas, but I’ve found that the work I do every day is international health—it’s just that it is performed here in Phoenix for people from all over the world.”
– Doug Hirano, Executive Director, Asian Pacific Community in Action

Doug Hirano grew up in San Jose, California and attended UC Irvine and UCLA, where he earned a master’s degree in public health. After working for almost 20 years with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Arizona Department of Health Services, he joined Mountain Park Health Center as a grant writer. There he partnered with individuals who were nurturing a new nonprofit focused on Asian American and Pacific Islander health. Two years later he became Executive Director of that agency, known as the Asian Pacific Community in Action.

To better understand the context of the lives of the people that Asian Pacific Community in Action serve, Hirano was an international health volunteer in Cambodia—the centerpiece of his fellowship. He was interested in becoming a more visionary nonprofit leader and attended the Stanford University School of Business’ Executive Program for NonProfit Leaders. Hirano also visited high-performing Asian Pacific Islander health organizations in Oregon and Ohio.

2012 Piper Fellow David W. Noble

“Abilities are like muscles—they are built by overcoming challenges that require us to move beyond our comfort zone and build our capacities to achieve more. I’ve met many people who, through the daily exercise of overcoming the challenges of living with a disability, have built themselves into highly successful people. From that example and my own experience I have adopted this principle—Assume that you can. Act accordingly.”
– David W. Noble, Development Director, Sun Sounds of Arizona

In 1985 David Noble applied his experience in radio, advertising, marketing, and public relations to reading services on the radio. In 2001 he moved from Pittsburgh to Phoenix and joined Sun Sounds of Arizona where he currently manages fundraising, marketing, and outreach.

Throughout his career, David has helped facilitate information access services for people with reading disabilities and volunteered as a lobbyist working on issues related to broadcasting and blindness. Noble received the Radio Reading Service Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Noble’s Piper Fellowship included shadowing manufacturing executives through a product development cycle. He gained firsthand experience about how new business ventures are created in the private sector. He applied this knowledge to Sun Sounds and created a business plan for consulting about the interface between consumer electronics and the needs of people with disabilities. Sun Sounds plans to offer consulting services as both a revenue generator for the organization and as a vehicle to help create more disabled-accessible products in the marketplace.